Tuesday, May 19, 2009

New Sault Metal Poll, Plus Last Poll Results!

No real news for this post, I'll have plenty of that to come. But today, I've decided to close our first ever Sault Metal Poll, after a month's worth of voting, and I'll share the results and my thoughts! As you might remember, the question I asked you was "Why do you think many fans don't go to metal concerts in Sault Ontario?". Only twenty-seven votes were cast, but it's honestly higher than I was expecting, so thanks for taking part! Let's go over the results, and see what the general consensus is. (FYI, there was one vote cast for "Other", but I don't know what their specific answer was)

Lack of alcohol license (0 votes): THANK YOU FOR NOT PICKING THIS! Good on you guys for agreeing that getting drunk is not the main reason to go to local shows. Sure, having a beer or two is fun, but the music comes first!

Quality of venue (0 votes): Looks like you guys don't judge attendance by where a show is held, and I agree completely. People go to shows for the music and to have fun, not complain that the venue is small, or not well set up, or something.

Staff and security crackdowns (0 votes): The only other choice with no votes, and in all honesty, this should never be an issue for anyone as long as you behave yourself. Some staff and security will naturally be stricter or more watchful than others, but they just want to make sure the show is safe and doesn't have any issues. Nice to see you guys agree!

Friend's band isn't playing (1 vote): I sincerely hope this vote was a joke. I'd like to think people in this town aren't judging concert attendance on if a friend is in one of the bands. It's your decision, but really, you have to support the bands that come here and try and succeed, even if you don't know them. I mean, come on.

High ticket prices (1 vote): Here's a selection I didn't expect to see get such low votes. I figured high admission would be a bone of contention, but looks like that isn't the main factor. Though in all honesty, most metal concerts in Sault Ontario won't go past $20 admission except at The Essar Centre, and we all know metal shows don't happen there often. Most concerts here are reasonably affordable, all things considered!

Underage restrictions (1 vote): Well, I expected some votes for this one, but just one? Looks like 19+ age limits aren't that big of a deal. In all honesty, only those 18 and under will likely have a problem with them. But looking back on it, it's a lot safer and easier to keep shows restricted to 19+s, so I can understand the low total a bit.

General laziness (4 votes): Now we're getting into the popular choices! Some of you apparently believe it's just laziness that hurts attendance. I still don't think this is the reason. People are motivated to go to shows, it just depends which ones. Oh well, maybe there are some "lazy" people here, what could be done to get them at shows?

Not many big name artists (4 votes): Looks like many people want to see bigger names come here. Now here's the problem with that: If you don't go to shows and support the ones that DO come here already, how likely are promoters to bring bigger bands, given the already low turnouts? That's just my observation. As for shows at The Essar Centre, I'll put it this way: Jackyl and Slaughter got about 500 people. Heaven and Hell and Megadeth got 3,000+. You do the math. That's the kind of concert we need there.

Minimal advertising (5 votes): The second most popular choice and one I can agree with as well! The internet does wonders for band promotion, exposure, and concert info (hell, I get 95% of our concert info from there), but many people in the Sault don't use the internet to search for shows. Back in the good old days, there used to be show flyers and posters everywhere, maybe promoters should start spreading them out more? Anything to get more people at shows, cause a Facebook event page shouldn't be the only tool used to promote a concert.

And the top choice in the poll is......Don't like the bands, which ran away with the highest total in the poll! 10 of you, over 37% of the voters, said that the reason people don't go to local metal shows is that they don't like the bands. This is a matter of preference, for the most part. Some people are picky when it comes to what bands and genres they like, others just don't see enough of their favourite types of bands come here.

So I'm going to use this top result as the basis for the next Sault Metal Poll! I wanna know what YOU guys want to see in Sault Ontario, in terms of metal bands. So, I pose to you guys this question: "What genre of metal bands would be most successful for Sault-area concerts?" Here are your choices!

Vote today at the left of the page! I'm really interested to see what kinds of metal you guys want in Sault Ontario! I'll leave it at that for now, and I'll have more news for you guys in the near future! And remember, Death By Stereo, Stillbroke, and Shift will all rock the Sault area this weekend, so stay tuned for info on those concerts! Thanks everyone, VOTE TODAY!!!